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I Rarely fish for rainbow but have wanted to go to Roosevelt for a while and was encouraged by other reports on this site to do so. We were not disappointed. Fishing was not red hot as others have reported already for 1/11-Sunday, but we caught some fish and enjoyed the great scenery at Roosevelt despite the cold weather. The short of the long is we went 6/8, five fish 15-17 inches and one nice carryover at 20.5 inches and 3 lbs. Three fish were caught on a HJ-7 fire tiger Rapala and three fish came on an orange fly behind a 4/0 dodger tipped with a crawler trolled 10-15' on the rigger in depths from 190'-80' at speeds from 1.5-2.5 mph.

My friend from work and I left the house at 7 and made the haul north through variable fog, icy/snowy conditions. I had decided to hit where the Spokane arm meets the main Roosevelt channel. We got to Fort Spokane and launched around 10, lines in the water by 10:30. On my first set back I clipped my line to the rigger only to have one of my Okuma SST kokanee rods snap seconds later. Bummer. This is where I put my plug in for always bringing a spare rod, do it!

So after a minor set back had lines in the water at 10:30 and first fish on at 10:40. Was running an orange trolling fly by Mack's and a pink hoochie, both behind dodgers, on the riggers and a HJ-7 Rapala in fire tiger 175' behind the boat. Tipped the fly with a worm and hoochie with shoepeg corn. First fish came over 190' of water 12' down on the north side of the point that divides Roosevelt from the Spokane arm.

I haven't fished Roosevelt before so I was just kind of shooting in the dark. There is some deep water north of the point and a shallower area south of it, so I figured it might hold fish. Worked our way in shallow and then headed across the face of the Spokane arm hoping to find the fish. Marked a few scattered fish but not much. Had another fish hit at about 11:05 on the hoochie at 15' over 110'. Missed it, not sure what happened as my buddy was the one working the gear at that point. Maybe it was a soft mouthed kokanee as this is my go to kokanee set up and the only bite on that rig all day.

We continued to the south shore of the Spokane arm. The north wind on 1/11 was pretty bitter and pushing current to this south shore. It clicked in my head when we got to the south shore that this is where the feed would be pushed and it sure showed up on the sonar along with fish. Lots of plankton in the water, we could even see a bunch in the first couple feet of water. Trolled up the Spokane arm a ways, then about 11:30 glanced back to see the Rapala rod pegged. Grabbed it and worked the fish in from way out for number two.

Kept working the shore up into the Spokane arm. Just south of the point we started at proved to be the sweet spot. Every time we passed we seemed to hook up but at intervals of every 30 minutes or so. Got fish three on the orange fly about noon, and fish four on the Rapala at noon thirty. Three was on a turn as we started to get out into the bitter north wind and turned with our tails tucked for the protected water, it was cold! These fish were coming tucked close to shore in 80-100' of water. We were marking fish at 30-40' below the bait and I ran a rigger at this depth but wasn't getting bites down there.

We made one more pass over the sweet spot and got one more bite on the orange fly at about 1. My buddy was up so I watched the rod go off and told him to grab it maybe leaving a little too much lag time and fish off! Ah well, that is fishing. Decided to go try and find hotter action and headed off to Seven Bays. Ran to the south end of the area planning to make one solid northerly pass. About the front of the launch we picked up fish five on the orange fly at twelve feet. Should have had more orange flies! Tried wedding rings, pink fly, desperado frisky jenny with no luck. Got out to the larger cove north of the launch and was getting ready to call it a day.

As I often do when kokanee fishing I left my lines out cleaned up the boat a bit and took our five fish out for a picture. Sure enough as I'm holding a few of them up our bonus fish came. My buddy turned around just in time to see the Rapala rod get absolutely crushed and the line start peeling off the reel. He grabs the rod and starts working it. At first the fish was swimming towards the boat and he thought he lost it. I tell him to keep reeling fast and we see the fish go aerial assuring us its still on. He works it in and it takes several more strong runs for the depths before it is in the net. I was truly impressed with this gorgeous fish and it really put the icing on our long, cold, day. Fish were all quality looking trout that cut very nice. Great winter fishery and great way to scratch that itch for the tug on the end of the line.

Tight lines all

hewesfisher

1/14/2015 6:50:00 AM

Great report and really nice pics! The one carryover is real nice. Guess I'm soft, won't winter fish in an open boat anymore, and marvel at you youngsters that can handle the cold. LOL. Thanks for your story and nice pictures! :-)

afk

1/14/2015 7:00:00 AM

It is always tough to rebound from a rough start. Glad you caught some. Will you be coming back to Chelan any this spring? Thanks for the report. Andy

ncwflounderer

1/14/2015 7:20:00 AM

nice report! I recently broke my Okuma Kokanee rod as well, didn't have my normal "spare rod" and it cut my fishing short. I replaced the rod already, and will not forget my spare again, that is for sure.

Matt

1/14/2015 9:19:00 AM

Not trying to hate or bash, just informing and making an observation. Your SST downrigger rod is actually a spinning rod. You can tell by the style of the Eyes.

Nice pics.

stryker17

1/14/2015 6:25:00 PM

don't think a fish could tell what type of rod it was caught on, I Use anything that catches fish.......still fun............

downriggeral

1/14/2015 8:55:00 PM

Great job you guys. As Hewesfisher said you are certainly tougher than me too. love the heated boat in winter. Thanks for sharing the nice pics - Alan

schu7498

1/15/2015 12:26:00 AM

Nice fish! Matt is just giving advice, and more than likely using that rod as downrigger rod with level wind reel is what broke the rod. Its just good advice for the future. The guides on a spinning rod are meant to take the load and a downrigger rod or casting rod the blank is made to take theload.

Matt

1/15/2015 9:24:00 AM

Stryker, as Schu said I wasn't meaning to offend anyone. I was just trying to be helpful. That rod is not meant to be loaded down and used in that manner, the eyes are designed to be fished the other way.

Just food for thought. Those SST's are very nice rods, I have a few in my quiver as well.

kenbarb

1/16/2015 4:46:00 PM

Enjoyed reading your detailed report, you guys did very good for your first time fishing Roosevelt, nice pictures too.

Fishman_Kuzan

2/7/2015 2:06:00 PM

Thank you everyone for the comments. Sorry I slack and did not get back sooner.

Al and Hewesfisher I am a student of your reports and appreciate your comments, hope to catch you guys on the water sometime! Hewes... I wouldn't say you are soft, just smart! It was pretty frigid out there in my open smoker and I will patiently await the next upgrade to a bigger boat that is spacious with a top on. You guys must be retired getting to fish all the time, jealous.

afk- will definitely be hitting Chelan, especially with Darrel & Dad's luck early prospecting and hopefully a WA lakes get together.

Broken rod thread- this site is all about positive vibes so I will just interpret it that way. The rod broke due to a weak spot and I'm thinking something must have fell on it in transit. There were rub sort of marks around the break. The rod in the picture is my SST rod that is usually rigged with a spinning reel for jigging (but served as a troller on this trip). Oh well on the broken rod, God's message for me to get some lami kokanee rods, which I just did, can't wait for spring!

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